


Balance

by southofthesky



Series: Pod AU [2]
Category: Wizard101 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Battle, Blood and Injury, Death depending on how you interpret it at the end I was not specific, Injury, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southofthesky/pseuds/southofthesky
Summary: In a moment of weakness, unsure if she’ll even live long enough to stumble off of the battlefield, Cassandra calls upon her patron goddess to discover if she has finally done enough.
Series: Pod AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030539
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Balance

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place sometime after the current end of the game in the twilight of another magical war that the savior of the spiral has been roped into. It's very different from what I usually write, I hope y'all enjoy it!

It is the moments at the end of a war that are the loneliest. When the battle is done but the outcome is unclear to all but those that aren't there. When the loss weighs you down like a blanket and the bruises are only starting to form. When the blood of the victors and the defeated alike still runs like streams, swirling around each other in an intricate dance before becoming one as it soaks into the earth. When the swords have stopped clashing but the hum of magic still lingers in the air, licking at the skin of those still breathing and those lying still, begging to be felt one last time before it dissipates entirely. When you can see every loss laid bare in front of you but you can’t seem to feel any of them yet. It is the moments at the end of the war that are the loneliest.

Cassandra can still feel every blow. The white-hot flames, freezing snow, sharp electricity, hazy clouds, rough sand, the warmth of healing light, the cold touch of death, and the emptiness of the shadows all tumble beneath her skin as the remnants of the cast spells blow through the breeze and tangle in her messy hair. Nothing feels quite real as she stumbles across the field, tripping over friends and foes that don’t move when her boots make contact with their legs. The searing pain in her side and the weight of her sword in her hand are the only things that ground her to the earth. Her head spins but she focuses on the horizon and not on the faces of those below her. It shouldn’t have ended like this, but it did. It always did. It’s always her.

She pauses there for a moment, a hero halted amongst the carnage because she needs to know. She needs to know if she’s done enough. If she’s sacrificed enough. If she can finally lay down and rest.

The goddess still calls for blood even with buckets of it having already been split. Cassandra doesn’t mind. The sight blade of her sword sliding across her palm is nothing compared to what she has seen today alone. The stinging sensation is nothing against the burning wound already in her abdomen. The whispering of a spell, ancient words of power passed down from master to master, is the first thing to break the silence. Her eyes softly close and she breathes deeply, shakily. Once. Twice.

When she opens her eyes, she gasps softly. The world is dark but she can feel the sash pressing against her temples. Judgment’s scales rest upon her hand, outstretched and staining the brass red with her blood. Her fingers wind around it, ignoring the discomfort so that she may know the truth. She can feel the weight of the scales and she knows. After everything that she’s fought for and everything she has lost, all she has managed to do is bring the world to balance for a perfect moment. Good and Bad, Order and Chaos, Light and Shadow weighted evenly against each other for what may only be a few more breaths.

It almost breaks her, that after everything that has passed she has merely evened out the scales. But the goddess is kind. She offers the wizard, still so young, a gift in her moment of vulnerability. The world is dark, but she can see so clearly. The spiral is at rest. The Dark and the Light are swirling around each other in perfect harmony. It has not all been for naught. The silence is not another calm before a storm, but the soft moments before the dawn. A true peace that fills her with rosy warm contentment she has not felt in years. She has done enough and it is time for her to rest too.

A voice calling her name across the plains pulls her out of her stupor, the world lit anew and the weight disappeared from her hand. A bright smile breaks out across her cheeks at the sight of an old friend, running down a hill to greet her at last. She doesn’t think twice before she abandons her sword in the grass to embrace them as the sun begins to set in the pinkening sky.


End file.
